Regenerative Future Summit

What would it mean to have an economy that would work for everyone in society? That’s the question under discussion May 15-17 at the first Regenerative Future Summit at CU Boulder. Hunter Lovins of Natural Capitalism Solutions, one of the event organizers, says that the idea grew out of about 5 years of work that started with an invitation to a number of those attending the summit, from the King of Bhutan, who wanted the concept of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness and make it the basis for international development policy.

“So a number of us trekked off to Bhutan, met for a week. In the end the Bhutanese politics intervened and the international expert working group didn’t come to anything, but the idea stuck with a lot of us. So we’ve had a series of meetings in this country, in Europe, in Latin America, on how would you redesign the economy so that it works, as Buckminster Fuller once said, for 100% for humanity?”

What emerged is the work of several organizations around the world who have been trying to craft a new narrative of an economy in service to life. Lovins says The Regenerative Future Summit will bring many of those groups together to discuss what it would mean to build a regenerative economy that builds human and natural capital as opposed to destroying it.

“All major eco-systems in the world are in decline, some of them in collapse, many countries are in collapse. We’re heading for a cliff, and yet we have all the technologies we need to solve all the major problems facing us. What we have we believe is this corrupt counterfeit story. So obviously, the task is to build a new story that works for us all.”

Dr. Ida Kubiszewski, Associate Professor at Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University and founding member and current Co-Editor in Chief of Solutions, a magazine/journal hybrid.